Dewayne Dedmon Isn’t Likely To Solve The Sixers’ Backup Center Problem

After trading Matisse Thybulle in a four-team deal for Jalen McDaniels ahead of the 2023 NBA trade deadline, the Philadelphia 76ers still had one open roster spot. They filled it Monday by signing center Dewayne Dedmon to a rest-of-season contract, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

Following the trade deadline, team president Daryl Morey acknowledged that the backup spot behind All-Star center Joel Embiid remained a concern, which presumably motivated the Dedmon signing.

“I think what most people worry about is when Joel is off (the court),” Morey said Friday. “How are we going to play when Joel is off? I think we’re going to improve that. That hasn’t been as good as we want it to be.”

While Dedmon offers more size than the Sixers’ other backup center options, he isn’t likely to fix the major questions they have at that spot. Instead, he appears poised to follow in the footsteps of DeAndre Jordan, the past-his-prime buyout big whom the Sixers regrettably signed after last year’s trade deadline.

At 7’0″ and 245 pounds, Dedmon is considerably bigger than Montrezl Harrell (6’7″, 240 lbs) and Paul Reed (6’9″, 210 lbs). He averaged 3.6 rebounds and 0.5 blocks in only 11.7 minutes per game for the Miami Heat this year, and they allowed 1.4 fewer points per 100 possessions with him on the floor (108.9) than they did with him on the bench (110.3).

Opponents are shooting 2.9 percentage points below their typical average with Dedmon as their primary defender this season, albeit in a relatively small sample. They’re shooting 8.7 percentage points below their average within six feet and 9.6 percentage points below their average within 10 feet against Dedmon, which provides some semblance of hope that he can offer more rim protection than Harrell in particular.

However, that’s about where the positives end.

Miami averaged 13.8 fewer points per 100 possessions on offense with Dedmon on the floor this season compared to when he was off. His minus-12.5 net rating swing was the worst of any Heat rotation member who has played at least 100 minutes. The 33-year-old also has one of the highest foul rates of any big man in the league.

Dedmon has knocked down 11 three-pointers on the season, which is 11 more than Reed and Harrell combined. However, he’s a career 33.5 percent three-point shooter on extremely low volume, so opponents will happily concede open triples to him if he’s spotting up along the perimeter.

Dedmon has only seven double-digit scoring outings on the season. He nearly has as many personal fouls (61) as made field goals (64). He does have the ability to knock down an occasional jump shot—he’s 5-of-11 from 10 feet of the basket to the three-point line this season—but most of his offense comes from within 10 feet.

The Sixers won’t need Dedmon to be a high-volume scorer. Embiid, James Harden, Tyrese Maxey and Tobias Harris will continue to carry a majority of the scoring load for them, with De’Anthony Melton, Georges Niang and Shake Milton providing additional help. They just need to not get blown out in the minutes where Embiid is catching a breather, which has been a constant issue for them in recent years. (Embiid was a plus-10 in 45 minutes in the Sixers’ two-point loss to the Toronto Raptors in Game 7 of the 2019 Eastern Conference Semifinals, which means they got outscored by 12 in his three minutes off the floor.)

Fixing that issue might be as much on head coach Doc Rivers as it is on Dedmon.

If the Sixers keep Harden on the floor with all of Dedmon’s minutes, he’d have an elite pick-and-roll partner with whom to work. Dedmon is averaging 1.15 points per possession as a roll man this season, which ranks in the 50th percentile leaguewide, but he also wasn’t playing in Miami with a passer like Harden. However, Rivers tends to run with all-bench or bench-heavy lineups, at least during the regular season. That means Dedmon is far more likely to spend most of his minutes with Tyrese Maxey and/or Shake Milton, both of whom are more score-first guards.

If Rivers shortens his rotation in the playoffs and pairs Dedmon’s minutes with Harden, that would give him the best opportunity to make a positive impact. However, the Sixers should spend the final 29 games of the regular season testing out the efficacy of that pairing rather than trying it out cold turkey in the playoffs.

Although we’re only a few days past the trade deadline, the Sixers’ options on the buyout market were already dwindling. Point guard Reggie Jackson plans to sign with the Denver Nuggets, wing Danny Green is headed to the Cleveland Cavaliers and swingman Terrence Ross plans to sign with the new-look Phoenix Suns, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Still, players such as Hassan Whiteside and DeMarcus Cousins have been free agents all season, while the Detroit Pistons might waive Nerlens Noel in the coming days. The Sixers should have been aiming for a higher-upside option than Dedmon.

The Sixers do still have enough room under the luxury-tax threshold to sign another player to a veteran-minimum contract. The Thybulle-McDaniels swap pushed them from roughly $1.2 million over the NBA’s $150.3 million luxury-tax threshold to nearly $1.3 million under it, and Dedmon will have a cap hit slightly below $600,000 if they sign him on Monday, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks. However, they’d have to open up a roster spot by waiving a player such as Reed or Harrell, the latter of whom has a $2.8 million player option for next season.

Dedmon gives the Sixers more insurance behind Embiid, but he isn’t likely to raise their ceiling. The Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks still appear to be a class ahead of the Sixers in the Eastern Conference, which has them staring down the prospect of yet another second-round playoff loss.

Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac or RealGM. All odds via FanDuel Sportsbook.